Basic information on Slovakia Demographics
Slovakia’s population in 2001 was 5 379 455, of which 520 528 people, that is, 9.7%, claimed to be of Hungarian descent. The areas inhabited by Hungarians in Southern Slovakia stretch from Bratislava to the Slovakian-Ukrainian border and include five districts: Bratislava, Nitra, Trnava, Banská Bystrica and Kosice. According to the forecasts until 2025, no dramatic change can be expected in the population of Slovakia. Population numbers in 16 townships will remain approximately identical to the current ones; the area including the remaining townships is dominated by the ones where population numbers will be declining. The greatest growth is forecasted in Bratislava and its vicinity, in the northern part of Central Slovakia and the majority of the Eastern Slovakian townships. Whereas the growth of population in Bratislava and its vicinity will be triggered by immigration, in the other areas it will be due to natural population growth.
Occupation and unemployment
Based on the data of SZKSH (Slovakian Central Statistics Office) in the first half of 2009 there were 2 276.1 thousand people employed in Slovakia, including
• 1 978.6 thousand employees,
• 216.1 thousand self-employed entrepreneurs (without any employees),
• 71.9 thousand entrepreneurs occupying employees,
• 1.1 thousand family members assisting in enterprises.
According to the September 2009 data of the Centre of Labour, Social Welfare and Families, the rate of unemployment increased by 0.4%, to 12.45% in Slovakia, which is a four-and-a-half-year maximum. In comparison to the data from September of the previous year, there was a growth of 4.91%. According to the centre, the rate of unemployment will further increase until the end of the year, primarily due to the effects of world economy. Currently 329 860 people are registered in employment offices.
While the employment offices registered almost 49 thousand new unemployed people, approximately 36 thousand were released from the system, including 22 thousand people who had found new jobs. Based on former estimates of the analysts, unemployment will peak at 14% next year.
Currently the rate of unemployment is highest in the Rimavská Sobota township: 32.84%. The proportion of unemployed people in the Revúca township is 30.41%, in the Roznava township 26.92%, in the Trebisov township 25.04%. The lowest rate of unemployment was measured in Bratislava. In Slovakia jobs are very scarce, there are 48 unemployed people for every job.
The employment offices can offer jobs for 7 and a half thousand unemployed, but the number of unemployed in late August 2009 was over 355 thousand. Of the unemployed almost 320 thousand would be able to start work immediately. The offices, however, do not have all the available jobs in their offer. In Slovakia employers do not have the statutory obligation to notify the offices of their vacant positions. It is in Bratislava that people have the biggest chance of finding a position. In the Slovakian capital the unemployment rate has been at its lowest countrywide, and the city offers the greatest number of vacant positions, too.
Number of vacant positions in the counties County Number of vacant
positions
Bratislava 2 284
Trnava 1 038
Trencin 707
Nitra 779
Zilina 609
Banská
Bystrica 696
Presov 778
Kosice 576
Total 7 467
Strategic developmental schemes in education
The equivalent of the ‘NEW HUNGARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2007-2013’
in Slovakia is titled ‘SLOVAKIAN NATIONAL STRATEGIC REFERENCE FUNDS 2007-2013’, with two operative programmes that deal with the strategic development of education:
6.1. Educational Operative Programme 2007–2013
The global aim of the operative programme is to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the Republic of Slovakia by restructuring the educational system to meet the needs of a knowledge-based society.
The priority axes of the programme:
1. A reform of education and vocational training
The main goal of the priority axis is to reform primary and secondary education, raise the quality of university education, as well as of human resources used in research and development, and the preparation of graduates to conform to the current and future demands of the labour market and the knowledge-based society. In order to ensure this a strategy was chosen which focused on two key elements: regional education and higher education.
2. Life-long learning as a fundamental pillar of a knowledge-based society The goal of the priority axis is to create and develop an efficient system of life-long learning and life-long counselling, through the universally accessible development of key competencies and qualifications through life, in harmony with the current and future demands of a knowledge-based society. Adult educational institutions and quality programmes become subsidised, the participation of economically active population in further training programmes, the development of key competencies is promoted, the qualifications of actors of the labour market are permanently increased, and individual training systems become interpenetrable and harmonisable.
The programme supports the development of institutional and administrative capacity of health care employees, too.
3. Promoting the training of people with special needs
The main goal is to improve the living conditions, social and cultural environment of disadvantaged groups and individuals with special educational needs, to raise their level of qualification, with special attention to segregated Roma communities. Activities that can be subsidised focus on the primary and secondary education as well as further training of the target groups, and training the professionals who contribute to solving the social, economic, cultural and educational problems of disadvantaged groups.
6.2. Occupational and Social Acceptance Operative Programme 2007–2013 The operative programme implements priority 3.2 within the 3rd strategic priority of NSRK – increasing employment and supporting social acceptance. It includes the two goals of cohesion policy: Convergence and Regional Competitiveness and Employment. The operative programme is valid for the Bratislava district, primarily because dividing Slovakia for the purposes of realising the two goals of the cohesion policy does not cover the differences in the fields of employment and social acceptance. The other reason is the simplification of administration, control and implementation. The global aim of the programme is to increase the rate of employment, improve the quality of labour market supply, enhance the social acceptance of disadvantaged groups and increase public policy capacities.
Priority 1: Promoting the increase of employment
This priority axis focuses on increasing employment and reducing unemployment taking active measures in the labour market, primarily for young people, the elderly and the permanently unemployed by learning new, current knowledge and enhancing workforce mobility. Other supported fields include increasing the quality of human resources, promoting innovative and flexible working hours, driving back illegal employment, forecasting and managing changes in the structure of the economy and promoting social dialogue. In addition, the reinforcement of administrative capacities of social management, the public and private services is also supported through the acquisition of new competencies.
Priority 2: Promoting social acceptance
Of the activities facilitating social acceptance the strategy of the operative programme is directed at raising the quality and accessibility of social services, child protection, social care services, for all disadvantaged and segregated groups, with special attention to the concentration Roma people in towns and villages, separated and segregated areas. Furthermore, the activities are supposed to mitigate the risk of impoverishment and social segregation, with special emphasis on marginalised Roma communities. A further supported field is human resources development in institutions providing social services.
Priority 3: Increasing employment and promoting social inclusion in the Bratislava district
The activities targeting the enhancement of employment and social inclusion within the goal of Regional Competitiveness and Employment in many cases connect to measures within the goal of Convergence. The global aim of these is to increase the rate of employment, to raise the quality of labour market supply, to enhance the social acceptance of disadvantaged groups and to increase the quality of human resources in public policy.
Reviewing the priorities of competent Slovakian and Hungarian Operative Programmes the following areas have significant coherence:
• improving the capacity for employment;
• life-long learning, enhancing adaptability;
• improving the access to quality education, with special attention to disadvantaged regions.
For all these priorities we recommend launching international operations – in harmony with innovative and cohesion policy as well as the efforts of the Hungarian government – which the two countries can carry out in a harmonised manner, taking into account the goals stipulated in the OPs, and with an effort to ensure intensive international cooperation during implementation. Such operations might include, from the above fields, an expansion of international cooperation to improve the rate of employment and complex training and occupational programmes promoting social inclusion across borders (with special attention to common tools for the social integration of Roma in Eastern Slovakia and Northern and Eastern Hungary).
Management of education in Slovakia
In Slovakia education belongs in the scope of the Ministry of Education.
Structure of educational management:
1. Advisory bodies in the ministry
2. Budgetary organisations and authorities directly managing education 3. Background institutions of educational management
Advisory bodies of the ministry:
- council for developing curricula /Kurikulárna rada/
- council for IT in schools
/Rada pre informatizáciu a informatiku v školstve/
- council for children and young people /Rada pre deti a mládež /
- council for life-long learning and science
/Rada pre školský systém, celoživotné vzdelávanie a vedu/
- council for national minorities /Rada pre národnostné školstvo/
- council for vocational training /Rada pre odborné vzdelávanie/
- council for sports
/Rada ministra školstva pre šport/
Budgetary organisations and authorities participating in the direct management of education:
- County Office of Education, Bratislava /Krajský školský úrad v Bratislave/
- County Office of Education, Nagyszombat /Krajský školský úrad, Trnava/
- County Office of Education, Trencsén /Krajský školský úrad, Trenčín /
- County Office of Education, Nyitra /Krajský školský úrad, Nitra/
- County Office of Education, Besztercebánya /Krajský školský úrad v Banskej Bystrici/
- County Office of Education, Zsolna /Krajský školský úrad, Žilina/
- County Office of Education, Eperjes /Krajský školský úrad, Prešov/
- County Office of Education, Kassa /Krajský školský úrad, Košice/
- Pedagogical and Methodological Centre, Bratislava
/Metodicko-pedagogické centrum, Tomášikova 4, Bratislava/
- State Office of Vocational Training /Štátny inštitút odborného vzdelávania/
- National Centre for Sports /Národné športové centrum/
- State Institute of Pedagogy /Štátny pedagogický ústav/
- Slovakian Library of Pedagogy / Slovenská pedagogická knižnica/
- Research and Development Agency /Agentúra na podporu výskumu a vývoja/
- Agency of the Ministry of Education managing the EU structural fund /Agentúra Ministerstva školstva Slovenskej republiky pre štrukturálne fondy EÚ/
- State Office of the Educational Inspectorate /Štátna školská inšpekcia/
- National Office managing state certifiers
/Národný ústav certifikovaných meraní vzdelávania/
Background institutions of educational management - Scientific and Technical Information Centre of Slovakia /Centrum vedecko-technických informácií SR/
-Academia Istropolitana /Academia Istropolitana /
- Research Institute of Child Psychology and Pathopsychology /Výskumný ústav detskej psychológie a patopsychológie / - Slovakian Anti-doping Agency
/Antidopingová agentúra SR/
Regional management of education
The county local governments ensure the state administrational duties in education via the county offices of education under their supervision, with special emphasis on the following fields:
- supplying professional activity at the second level of decision-making in matters that at first level belong in the decision-making scope of secondary school principals
- supplying professional activity in supervision, the observance of general laws in schools and educational institutions and exercising the competence of the state educational inspectorate in the county.
- supplying professional activity to school principals when developing organisational guidelines for the given school year.
- supplying professional activity in training and counselling for schools and educational institutions and school catering
- supplying professional activity in supervising the further training of teaching employees
The financing of regional education is normative in kind.
The institutional background of the management of vocational training in Slovakia
The professional management of vocational training and the development of the content thereof belong in the exclusive scope of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovakia, where the competent field is supervised by the department of vocational training operating in the current organisational framework as part of the section responsible for public education. The aforementioned organisational unit has eight employees, and the tasks that have ethnic relevance, too, are handled together with the department for the education of minorities. Directives are received by the institutions from the central body of state administration via the owners of the schools, evidently and primarily via the county local governments. The decisions are made in the ministry, but the analysis, schemes and other information necessary for passing the resolutions are provided by the ministry’s background institution, the National Institute of Vocational Training (Štátny inštitút odborného vzdelávania). Here was the standard of Slovakian secondary vocational training (Štandard stredoškolského odborného vzdelávania a výchovy v Slovenskej republike) developed, too,
which the ministry approved in 2002, and which document is the basis of developing educational framework programmes. The material analyses the problem of key competencies in detail as well as target requirements at different levels of the ISCED system and different vocational courses, furthermore, the general and professional components of vocational trainings and their possible directions. The only flaw of the system is that it ignores national minority institutions, providing them with no guidelines. The primary reason is that in lack of appropriate professionals (and intentions)
— differently from the National Institute of Pedagogy — the vocational training research institute does not deal with the problem of teaching national minorities separately or its specificities, and no special pedagogical documents are developed for schools that teach in languages other than Slovakian.
The ownership of vocational training institutions, and the cooperation between vocational training and the labour market
In Slovakia secondary institutions providing vocational training can be owned by county local governments, churches or private individuals. The conditions of establishing a school are provided by law. In some cases the school does not belong in the scope of the Ministry of Education but operates under the supervision of some other ministry. The owner is responsible for providing young people with vocational knowledge, designing and managing it, but at the same time it has to create favourable circumstances for the development of students. The funding of vocational education is carried out from the state budget, the rules of which are specially provided for by law (Act No. 597/2003). The signing of contracts is regulated by a government decree. The vocational training institutions cannot separate themselves from the practice of finances, they cannot be independent of the labour market, as they can only perform efficient and rational work by taking into account the market demands. This is a circumstance that the ministry supervising the matters of vocational training cannot ignore. Therefore, the competent department of the ministry of education holds regular meetings with the representatives of the Slovakian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and of the organisations of different employers, as well as social partners, and they discuss current development and organisational problems, articulating joint tasks.
By reviewing the minutes and memoranda of such meetings, we may infer that more flexible regulation of content is needed with respect to the market, and that the graduates of schools could be made more competitive by lengthening the primary training and introducing life-long learning.
Adult education1
Life-long learning is provided for in Act No. 568/200917 in Slovakia.
Life-long learning, as a fundamental principle of education and learning is divided into two stages:
a.) school education
b.) further training (adult education), which is built on the qualifications obtained at school
School education – vocational training – was discussed previously, so let us take a look at the aspects of adult education. Adult education is an integral part of the educational system of the Republic of Slovakia alongside primary, secondary and higher education.
Adult education is carried out in further training (adult training) institutions and is adjusted to school qualifications. It provides full or partial qualifications, also supplementing, updating, expanding or making more thorough any qualification obtained at school as well as fulfilling the ambitions of people who wish to learn. The successful completion of further training does not provide school qualifications.
Types of further training:
• Vocational training – in the framework of an accredited educational programme, providing an appropriate qualification for some professional activity or supplementing, updating, expanding such.
• Requalifying training - in the framework of an accredited educational programme, providing partial or full – vocational – qualifications for the performance of one or several professional
1 The subchapter was authored by Mária Fabó.
activities, utilisable in a profession other than which the participant has received school qualifications for.
• Continual training – in the framework of educational programmes with which the participant supplements, updates, expands or makes more thorough their qualification obtained at school or in a requalifying training.
• Training to a special interest, training of seniors, other training – in which the participant expands their own circle interests and develops their personality.
School training belongs in the category of formal education, while further training in non-formal education.
Three kinds of institutions can carry out adult training.
• School – grammar schools, vocational secondary schools, conservatories, special vocational schools, primary art schools, language schools and colleges which provide educational programmes besides school training – these are accredited institutions.
• Legal entity – parties whose activities include education and the related activities.
• Physical person – entrepreneurs whose activities include education and the related activities.
In Slovakia the system of adult training is a work in progress, for the time being, developing under uncontrolled conditions and unresolved. According to different statistics there are currently 2500-3000 adult training institutions in Slovakia.
Vocational training includes, besides the network of vocational schools, adult education and retraining programmes and training courses. With Slovakia’s EU accession, new serious opportunities appeared for tender subsidies. At the same time, owing to the unprepared state of institutions and the lack of cooperation the accessible funds sometimes remain unutilised.
Local governments, such as the owners of schools, struggle with a lack of funds, and are unprepared, in many cases not managing to ‘do something’
about the development of these institutions, but no professional organisation at all takes care to develop vocational training institutions.
The professional management and content development of the process of vocational training belongs in the exclusive scope of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovakia, where the field in question is supervised by the department of vocational training operating in the current organisational framework as part of the section responsible for public education. Directives are received by the institutions from the central body of state administration via the owners of the schools, evidently and primarily via the county local governments.
The decisions are made in the ministry, but the analysis, schemes and other information necessary for passing the resolutions are provided by the ministry’s background institution, the National Institute of Vocational Training (Štátny inštitút odborného vzdelávania). Here they prepared the standard of Slovakian secondary vocational training (Štandard stredoškolského odborného vzdelávania a výchovy v Slovenskej republike), too, which the ministry approved in 2002, and which document is the basis
The decisions are made in the ministry, but the analysis, schemes and other information necessary for passing the resolutions are provided by the ministry’s background institution, the National Institute of Vocational Training (Štátny inštitút odborného vzdelávania). Here they prepared the standard of Slovakian secondary vocational training (Štandard stredoškolského odborného vzdelávania a výchovy v Slovenskej republike), too, which the ministry approved in 2002, and which document is the basis